College Confidential’s “Dean,” Sally Rubenstone, put together 25 of her best tips. So far, the "25 Tips from the Dean" eBook has helped more than 10K students choose a college, get in, and pay for it. Get your free copy: http://goo.gl/9zDJTM

shortlisting universities

Hello everyone!For the way of introduction,i am an Indian student and will be applying to USA for fall 2013.My intended major will either be computer science or computer information systems.I scored 1820 in my SAT (math-800,,cr-450,,wr-570).I am in the top decile in my school transcripts and a have a decent record of extra-curricular activities(namely-physics club president,CDLS,school head boy in class ten,member of numerous clubs,associated with NGO's from past three years,four times state level basketball player,made mentored research projects in chemistry(in DELHI UNIVERSITY),physics(in SCHOOL) and marketing(in INDRAPRASTHA UNIVERSITY).......etc.And the most important thing is that i interned at MICROSOFT and DELL (paid internships).
Please give me suggestions for the universities i should apply to and also wether or not a stand a chance of admission in CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY?

Replies to: shortlisting universities

Your ECs are good. Your class rank is decent for Carnegie Mellon. How're your grades? Mainly though, if you manage to get your SAT up to about 2150-2200, and work hard on your essays, you stand a good chance!

hmmmm my class rank is 22 in a batch size of 420.And i cant improve my SAt cz i dont have time for SAT now.its time to make applications and send them.i am already registered in december for SAt subjects tests.so this is what i have :(
please give me a suggestion for carnegie........and also suggest me some good universities i should apply to (the ones in my reach)

If you are planning to apply to CMU, then I will assume that money is not an issue for you (if I remember correctly). Then, I second what hopingforbetter said. Also, besides UIUC and UMich, I recommend Purdue and GeorgiaTech. Not so sure about the value of applying to PennState. That SAT score is most likely not going to cut it at CMU, given that you are international and Indian. Still, you can drop in an application if you want, and try taking SATs again in January, and sending them that score.

sir;unfortunately i do have an issue for finances!my total budget is no more than $40,000 per annum (tution + living +books+health insurance+everything else).but i want to apply to carnegie because its my dream school and if i get in there,i thinkmanaging funds using my assets would be worth it.
could you please tell me some low tution +good tution colleges!and has anyone heard of baruch college(CUNY)?????

Raising $20,000 a year managing assets is a tall order for any student. I'm not going to tell you to not apply to CMU, but I AM going to advise you against going there, even if you manage to get in. It doesn't matter if it's CS program is No. 1: it shares that title with MIT, UCB, and Stanford. If your budget is $40,000, that means that UCB is off the list as well. You can drop in an application to MIT or Stanford or Princeton, but to gauge my thoughts on that, just take a look at some of my other posts.....

At most of the places above, you can further cut costs by living off-campus, etc. (NOT the case at Carnegie Mellon, and other top schools), but I don't know if that's something you're willing to do.

On another note, perhaps you should look at the UK as well. I know for a fact that Cambridge costs you only slightly more than $40,000 a year, at the current exchange rate. But it may be too late to apply. Also consider UCL, Southampton, Bristol, Warwick?

Thankyou for replying.
Hmmm I am actualy not applying to UK!someone told me that one doesn't get job very easily in UK!so I dun want to risk my future.moreover I don't even want to go there.anyways,could you tell me that is baruch college (CUNY) worth applying?is it good?and what about UNC chapell hill,brigham young university,fortham,ohio state,stony brook,arizona state and university of minnisota twin cities?any suggestions?

^In the current climate, it's not any easier getting jobs in America. Plus, if you go to the UK, you do not have to limit yourself to the UK workforce; you can seek opportunities in the rest of Europe as well. Just saying.

From a cursory glance, I don't think any of the colleges you have mentioned here are top 50 in CS. But you will have to do the research into the finer details yourself.

^you got some good advise from @dasadhikarik. You can add Rutgers to the list as well. Again, as someone pointed out once, also base your college search on the kind of town/metropolitan cities you may want to live in. You are going in all directions. Choose your college also based on proximity to towns you want to spend your next 4 years and in some cases, proximity to relatives (if they are in the usa).

Helpful Links

About College Confidential

Welcome to the leading college-bound community on the Web!

Here you'll find hundreds of pages of articles about choosing a college, getting into the college you want, how to pay for it, and much more. You'll also find the Web's busiest discussion community related to college admissions, and our CampusVibe section!About Us